Michael O'Neill standing firm on Ronan Hale opportunities as Ross County striker waits on senior bow

Yahoo

24-05-2025

Michael O'Neill insists he will continue to judge Ronan Hale on how he is playing as the former Cliftonville forward waits for his senior Northern Ireland debut.
O'Neill has called Hale up to the squad for a second time after he made the switch from the Republic of Ireland following a protracted international transfer.
The Ross County star didn't feature in March's friendlies against Switzerland and Sweden, but for O'Neill there is no pressure just to give Hale minutes.
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The Northern Ireland boss highlighted Hale's upturn in form again as he bagged his 17th goal of the season in Thursday night's Premiership relegation play-off against Livingston with O'Neill predicting the striker will play some part in next month's friendlies against Denmark and Iceland.
"He wasn't the only player that didn't play in the last squad," said O'Neill when asked about Hale's lack of minutes for his country so far.
"I have to judge Ronan on how Ronan's playing. I don't judge him on that he did a transfer.
"That was outside of my control. That was a decision the boy made so I will judge him on how he is playing.
"If you look at Ronan he had a really good start to the season. He had a difficult period around Christmas and went out of Ross County's team so he didn't play a lot of football between maybe January and March and then he came back into their team and has done well. Maybe he needed that little bit of recovery.
"Probably when he came into us in March he wasn't really in his best form at that point in time.
"He has addressed that and has been a big player for Ross County - 16 goals in all competitions in his first season is a good return.
"We have purposely picked fewer forwards to give them the opportunity to give them minutes.
"I decided we didn't need to see Jamie Reid in this situation, Josh (Magennis) is injured so hopefully we can get Ronan on the pitch."